Storybook Perfect

Always quirky, sometimes sweet speculative fiction

Author: Kirstie Olley (Page 10 of 37)

Mother/writer/gamer Kirstie Olley is president of Vision Writers group and author of many quirky speculative fiction stories that have been competition winners, Aurealis Awards finalists, and honourable mentions in international competitions.

Going For Goals – April 2016

April 2, 2016 / / 2 Comments

mydeskATMThus far I’ve done fairly well with my goals this year. I’ve had to do a few reassessments – mostly for goals I didn’t set well in advance (see yesterday’s goals round up for an example).

This month the website becomes my focus for a bit. It’s been four years and I’m still rocking the same look. However I’m not sure exactly what will change. I’m spending a lot of time looking through themes, seeing if I can use multiple themes on the one site, looking into subdomains, trying to decide how to make my books and stories pages look prettier. And then there’s the really big goal…

I’m going to self publish The Troll’s Toll. Ideally this month, but if things get in the way next month, I don’t want to rush it and publish rubbish after all. Yet neither do I want to wait too long.

I’ve self published a few flash fiction pieces here on the site before, but they’ve never made it anywhere else on the internet. Except for those little flash pieces, everything has been traditionally published. But my vision is to be a hybrid author, and since novellas are typically a hard sell to traditional markets those are what I’m going to start publishing myself.

I’ve been working with a designer for a logo for the whole line of my Retailored Fairy Tales (which Charming, coming out this month in Leading Edge magazine #68, is a part of), working on a cover, the last of the copy edits, and soon will be diving into formatting. There’s much to do and it’s very exciting!

So, my goals for April:

  • Revamp of website
  • Release The Troll’s Toll
  • Help with the promotion of the releases of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #63 (which contains my story Gaps) and Leading Edge #68 (which contains my story Charming)

Stretch goal:

  • Write first draft of (very loose working title) Kitsune In Space

You need to read the ‘Space’ part of the title all deep voiced and drawn out like a TV show announcer in the 70s.

Also, though I really should be focusing I keep thinking of writing my own game using software/websites like Twine or One More Story Games. But focus. Put on those old fashioned horse-blinders and focus Kirstie, you’ve got enough to do this month already!

March Goals Round-Up 2016

April 1, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons

Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons

March was a fairly busy month, with two long weekend trips away (one to see my parents before they headed-off on an around Australia trip they won’t return from until Christmas, and the other an extended Easter holiday), the Aurealis Awards ceremony, and Xander’s last few weeks of his first ever term of school (plus first week of school holidays ;p ). Not that that stopped me, only slowed me down a touch.

Regarding goal #2 (being a killer president(not to be mistaken with president killer ;p )) I went to the Aurealis Awards Ceremony in my official capacity. I couldn’t help but bask in the glory of Vision Writers presence at the ceremony as our founders were MCs, past presidents and members presented awards, received awards, and my VP was a judge in the horror categories. If you want to read a more thorough run-down check out the post on the Vision Writers Website. I also did a lot of work on the upcoming Vision Writers anthology (mostly people and time wrangling, but you’d be surprised how much effort that can take sometimes).

Goal #3(work on my novellas) went swimmingly as I completed the first draft for Glass Slippers (though went quite over the projected word count ;p ), and finished my final revision of The Troll’s Toll before it’s upcoming publication(more to come on that very soon!).

Regarding goal #8(keep learning) I’ve been listening to podcasts nearly all month. A huge backlog of The Creative Penn podcasts, the new The Self Publishing Formula podcast, and the Kobo Writing Life podcast. If I haven’t learned a few new things in listening to easily 20+ hours of podcasts then I either am omniscient and all knowing, or too thick to learn ;p

No significant reportable progress on the rest of the yearly goals, but some pretty solid results on what I did get done.

In regards to my March specific goals:

  • Write Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters (projected length 7,000 words): I wrote 6,000 words of it then realised that I was going to go waaaaay over the word limit for the anthology I wanted to submit to. Also my conflict at the start was poor. Very poor. And that’s being generous with myself. I’ve come up with a better plot outline and will work on it later in the year.
  • Write Glass Slippers (projected length 15,000 words): Finished the first draft at just over 30,000 words. It’s a pretty solid first draft, with only one trouble area I’m aware of ATM. Currently letting it percolate before revising.
  • Begin revisions on both Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters and Glass Slippers: This was a stupid idea. Stupid. I realised if I did rush both first drafts and try to revise them for submission by the end of the month I’d just end up submitting severely sub-par work, so I scrapped this goal entirely, because there’s no point submitting junk. It doesn’t matter how badly you want to be a part of that anthology, you won’t be if you send the editor rushed rubbish. Better to miss out and not give yourself a name for submitting crap.
  • Help with the promotion of the release of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #63 (which contains my story Gaps) and Leading Edge #68 (which contains my story Charming): Lol, neither ended up releasing this month. Leading Edge will be out any day now though – watch this space for further news!
  • Complete plot outline for first Charming Sequel: Yes and no. I realised what was wrong/missing in the plot outline I did last month. The problem is this needs to be two separate stories. I’ve got a very good idea for the first half of the split(needs to be properly outlined still), and last month’s outline mostly takes care of the second part(just needs irrelevant parts removed).
  • Complete plot outline for (working title)Kitsune In Space: Done, and I can’t wait to write this story, Japanese shape shifters in space, and a trans character = my hands up in the air like I’m on the best roller coaster ever. I also spent a whole day working on the kanji for the main characters names(this matters, here’s why).
  • Figure out the plotting problems with the end of Skeleton Romance(working title) so I can finish the novel: I’ve made a little headway on this, but nothing significant
  • Complete final revisions on The Troll’s Toll so it’s ready for editors: Yes I did this one! It’s being proofread/copy edited as we speak! You’ll be seeing and hearing a lot about The Troll’s Toll over the next couple of days/weeks 😀

All up I kept pretty busy in March, and April doesn’t look any quieter.

Projected Word Length

March 22, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Too Many WordsOne thing that ALL of my projects thus far this year have taught me is that I am a severe under-estimator when it comes to setting projected word lengths.

If you have any doubts here are my estimates for the writing projects I’ve started this year:

Skeleton Romance (working title) novella, I projected 20,000 words originally. I upped that figure to 30,000 once I saw where I was in my plot outline after writing 15,000 words. I then upped it again to 40,000. I’ve currently written 43,000 words and am just about to begin the final climb towards the climax, and as it stands I strongly doubt I can do the ending in less than 10,000 words. So basically, this novella is a novel.

Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters‘ projected length is 7,000 words. I’ve written 6,000. Of course on closer inspection its a terribly slow start, and I need to ramp up the conflict before the inevitable appearance of the swamp monster (what, you thought there wouldn’t be one? Who do you think I am?). So basically, I’m going to scrap just about all of those 6,000 words and rewrite. Maybe I’ll come in a bit closer to the estimate this time…

Glass Slippers was to be a long short story/short novella (depends on your own ideas of what word counts define those terms) and I projected a 10,000 word length. In fact I was worried I wouldn’t hit the 10,000 because the market I intend to submit it to won’t take less than 10,000 words. I just finished it at 30,700 words. Frustratingly enough the market I’d wanted to submit it to has a roof limit of 20,000 words.

So, in case you missed it, I can’t accurately project word counts on my stories this year. I must have lost the talent last year while wallowing in the editing trenches.

On a slight side note, if my project Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters excites you because you like swamp monsters go check out The Bandershin by Talitha Kalago for another Australian swamp monster story. Don’t forget to review it if you like it too!

Vision Writing Prompt: Memorable Movie Lines

March 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Writing Prompt: Memorable Movie Lines

Beautiful Short From Studio Ghibli

March 17, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I love Studio Ghibli, and when I’m in a poor mood nothing lifts my spirits like my favourite Ghibli films(Howl’s Moving Castle is a legitimate replacement for chocolate cake to me).

So of course I’m super excited to see they’ve made a super cute short based on the earliest recorded manga, the Choju Jinbutsu Giga picture scrolls.

It’s super short, but so cute.

For those not familiar with some points of Japanese culture, unlike here in the west where we write our initials in a heart with our partner’s, in Japan you write your names sharing an umbrella, so that little bit at the end is super sweet <3

Vision Blogging: Don’t Spoil The Surprise!

March 6, 2016 / / 0 Comments

spoil the surpriseLike every first Sunday of the month, I went to my writers group today. I’ve written another meeting take-away post on the Vision Writers group blog, after a fun meeting filled with cool new people I hope to see again.

Interestingly enough, my story was one of the two stories who received the advice, and I was the one who gave that advice in the other instance ;p

Also, Metallica reference totally intended ;p

Don’t Spoil The Surprise!

Going For Goals – March 2016

March 5, 2016 / / 2 Comments
doing a whole lot of this during March

doing a whole lot of this during March

Oops! I was so busy actually working on my monthly goals I forgot to share them with you!

I found four different anthologies with open submission calls that I really liked the themes of. Two have very soon dead lines, but two are a bit further off, so I thought I’d work hard on writing and revising the sooner two stories.

So:

  • Write Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters (projected length 7,000 words)
  • Write Glass Slippers (projected length 15,000 words) I’ve already written 9,500 ;p
  • Begin revisions on both Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters and Glass Slippers
  • Help with the promotion of the release of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #63 (which contains my story Gaps) and Leading Edge #68 (which contains my story Charming) which both come out this month
  • Complete plot outline for first Charming Sequel
  • Complete plot outline for (working title)Kitsune In Space
  • Figure out the plotting problems with the end of Skeleton Romance(working title) so I can finish the novel (more about this in tomorrow’s blog post)
  • Complete final revisions on The Troll’s Toll so it’s ready for editors

Stretch Goal:

  • Write Charming sequel
  • Finish the ending of Skeleton Romance

Also, I’m going to have to try hard not to use this adorable Cthulhu emoticon (;,,,;)

Fabruary Goals Round-Up 2016

March 1, 2016 / / 4 Comments

fabThe goal I probably did the most work on last month was Goal 2 – being a good president to my writers group. Our group is working on an anthology to celebrate its 20th anniversary. I spent a lot of time hunting down old members and trying to contact them. I discovered there’s a surprising number of successful authors who don’t have websites, or social media, or any easy way to contact them >.< So if you are a published past member of Vision and didn’t get a message from me, that might be why (or I never heard you were a past member). I also had several other things to do with the anthology front and back matter and edits organisation. Also I worked on a presentation plan for an  appearance at BWF again – but in a different way this time! And dealt with a website outage. Busy busy!

Goal 3, working on my novellas saw some attention, with me utilising some beta reader feedback for The Troll’s Toll and writing a further 10,400 words in Skeleton Romance(working title). I also did a plot outline for a couple of novellas I’ll be writing soon (The Charming Sequel and Glass Slippers). Also wrote the first 1,500 words of Glass Slippers.

Goal 4, write more short fiction. I wrote the first 4,500 words of Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters, a new short story, and wrote a plot outline for another short story I want to write for an upcoming anthology(which the working title is almost too ridiculous to even say outloud).

Goal 6, work with as many editors as I can, went well. I worked with editors (a team of them 🙂 !) on Charming,  a different editor on God’s Chosen, and yet another on Glass Bones – and that was just in February. When you count my January edits I’ve worked with five different editors (or groups of editors). An exciting start, and I’m sure learning lots(which of course satisfies goal 8, keep learning ;p ).

In regards to my February specific goals:

  • Finish the first draft of Skeleton Romance(working title) – I wrote another 10,000+ words, but came across a problem, I have two antagonists whose narratives need wrapping up. My original plot outline was only concerned with wrapping up the romantic and platonic relationships and the self-growth of the protagonist, not the antagonistic stuff. What an over sight! And i made some pretty nasty villains who are going to be harder to polish off that i at first thought. It’s going to take a bit longer than I thought. Again. also, there is nothing novella length about Skeleton romance now – it’s a novel ;p
  • Get betas back for The Troll’s Toll and utilise feedback – I did so. The Troll’s Toll now has a more solid ending and a lot of lovely compliments ;p
  • Get betas back for Foxworth and utillise – I’ve only had one beta reader get back to me. I was so busy with the anthology and the edits for my professional sales I forgot all about this goal until this very moment ;p Time to send a few polite emails.
  • Write the new Charming sequel – I didn’t write it, but I did get the plot outline done. I still feel there’s a little something missing from the story though, so I’m researching a lot of lesser known fairy tales trying to find the missing puzzle piece (plus, reading fairy tales is fun 😀 )

My stretch goal, to write some more flash fiction, was sort of done. I’ve come up with 3 new short stories and started a couple of them, but none of them are flash fiction, they’re all 7,000 words or longer in their projected length. They’ll still suit my purpose of getting more stories to try and sell traditionally though ;p

All up, I think I did make February Fabruary. It was a busy and productive month.

Vision Writing Prompt: The Business Plan

February 21, 2016 / / 4 Comments
‘Sorry About That Dealine’ by Barbara L Hanson (sourced from Flickr)

‘Sorry About That Dealine’ by Barbara L Hanson (sourced from Flickr)

With business plans, branding, and all that jazz on the brain this last couple of months it’s hardly surprising that I managed to work them into a writing prompt ;p

If you want to get the creative juices flowing click over to the Vision Writers website and have a read.

If you want to work on your own business plan consider checking out this series by Talitha Kalalgo.

Writing Prompt: The Business Plan

Going For Goals – February 2016

February 2, 2016 / / 0 Comments

fabJanuary went well, I completed or near-completed all the goals I set for the month(though I didn’t touch my stretch goal), made some great progress on my yearly goals, and received three acceptance letters for short stories. That’s given me the confidence and drive to make February, FABruary.

I know, it’s a smaller list than January. Let me explain. I have two more stories I should be receiving edits on this month, and a possible third which could drop on me at any time. Also our family has a couple of weekends away planned, and I know I won’t do any writing then because I’ll be having family fun. That and this list doesn’t include things like the reciprocal feedback I’m giving my beta readers, the critiquing I do each month for my writers group and all my household goals that have nothing to do with my writing (like cleaning the spare bedroom and organising Xander’s toy mountain).

Without further ado, FABruary’s goals are:

  • Finish the first draft of Skeleton Romance(very loose working title)
  • Get betas back for The Troll’s Toll and utilise feedback
  • Get betas back for Foxworth and utillise
  • Write the new Charming sequel

And my stretch goal is:

  • Write some flash fiction with Holly’s course (or at least use it to give me some short stories)

I need that stretch goal because I’ve almost run out of short fiction to sell traditionally. If I want to keep making traditional sales I’m going to need some more material ;p

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